One thing I did not know was that Spain is the world’s second-most visited tourist destination, surpassed only by France. Every year, more than 90 million people visit this southern European country, which is twice the population of the country, and most of them visit during the summer months.

After getting some interesting offers in March 2014, I met a rebreather diver from Gran Canaria at the Dive and Travel Show in Madrid. He suggested that I come to Gran Canaria for wreck diving. At first, I was not particularly interested, because I really wanted to do some nice wreck dives, and the Canary Islands were not necessarily known for their wealth of wrecks. I had been to Lanzarote a few times, but I had never seen any interesting wrecks there. On the contrary, I was told again and again that there were no wrecks anywhere on the Canary Islands.

Most divers, and especially underwater photographers, seem to think it is necessary to fly halfway around the globe to get a good dive or some great underwater images. Not so! Great diving is much closer to home, at least if you are based in Europe, or plan a stop-over in Madrid. The Canary Islands is a well-known holiday destination, but it seems most people are unaware of the great diving opportunities. Gran Canaria is located bang in the middle of the offshore island group, and offers perhaps the best combination of accessibility, value for money and great diving.

The Atlantic is unpredictable. If you want to do technical wreck diving off the coast of northern Spain, you must be flexible enough to deal with conditions that change very quickly. One should allow extra time for this, and it does not hurt to also have an alternative program—a plan B—in case changing conditions scuttle your initial plans. Nevertheless, the forgotten wrecks of Laredo are definitely worth a visit.

It is commonly heard among European divers that they only care about venturing to the tropics because they believe there is so little to see in the Mediterranen. That is certainly not the case with the Medas Islands, which are covered by lush forests of colourful coral in which lots of other life has taken up refuge and there are schools of fish patrolling the steep coastline.

In August 1915, the battleship was originally christened the Alphonso XIII after the current king of Spain, in the shipyard of Vickers-Ferrol and had two sister ships named España and Jaime I. The First World War was going on in Europe, but Spain was neutral, so the ships were not brought into the conflict.

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